28i 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Septembek 8, 1917. 





British Guiana and British Honduras have extensive 

 forests, covering probablj- five-sixths of their area, as 

 yet largely untouched. There is thus a splendid opportun- 

 ity afforded to the Governments for carrying out a forestry 

 system under which, through regulated natural reproduction, 

 or systematic replanting, and through research as to the 

 fconomic uses to which the native woods can be put, these 

 forests would be a permanent source of wealth to the people 

 and of revenue to the Government. {Financier and Uullion- 

 ist, May 12, 1917.) |, 



GLEANINGS. 



In a recent number of the Agricultural Kews it was 

 noticed that the issue of the Kew Bulletin would probably 

 te discontinued. From Nature, July 12, 1917, we learn, 

 lowever, that the Troisury has informed the British Science 

 Guild that the issue of the Keir Bulletin is to be continued, 

 subject to the omission of certain classes of information, the 

 publication of which ran be postponed. 



All the wells of Bathurst, Gambia, have been stocked 

 ■with fish to protect them from larvae, and the fish have 

 proved their value, few wells being found to contain any 

 larvae. In the lagoons also the fish have been very 

 successful, and there has been a complete absence of the 

 clouds of Culex that used to invade the town from time to 

 time. (The Colonial Journal, .ln]y 1917.) 



A correspondent in the Port of- Spain Gazette, August 11, 

 1917, writes as to the advisability of planting castor oil 

 as a crop, on the grounds that it demands no great 

 cultural care, and that good crops are assured under tropical 

 conditions, while the market can be relied upon on account 

 of an increasing dema 1 for the oil as a lubricant, especially 

 for motor engines and aeroplanes. 



There has been much examination in Egypt and India 

 of the various schemes for helping agriculturists by means 

 of banks, and the general conclusion is that such banks 

 should be of the cooperative kind. It is essential that the 

 members of the society should be responsible to one another. 

 When this is the case it becomes a nucleus of self-government, 

 order, education, and economy. (The Colonial Journal, -July 

 1917.) 



Asa result of the inve-stigation in the digestibility n( 

 vegetable fats, C. F. Laugworthy and A. D. Holmes report 

 in Bulletin ■'>(>'>, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 that it is reasonable to conclude that olive, cotton seed, 

 peanut, coconut and sesame oils are very completely and 

 readily available to the body, and that they may, like the 

 animal fats, be satisfactorily used for food purposes. {Experi- 

 ment Station Record, Vol. XXXVI, No. 9.) 



Studies in the feeding and breeding of ostriciies for 

 the purpose of increasing the production of high quality 

 feathervs have been made on a ranch at (Jlendale, Arizona. 

 Among the young cliicks raised are several from a cross 

 between the Nubian and South African birds. It is believed 

 that by such a cross an improvement in the quality of the 

 feathers may be accomplished. {Report of the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 September l-"), 19 6.) 



The Gazette, T\xTk% and Caicos Islan?!s, July 2S, 1917, 

 contains a report of a sub-committee of the Turks and 

 Caicos Islands Agricultural and Industrial Society, proposing 

 that an exhibition of the products and industries of the 

 Dependency be held in January 1918. The Committee 

 append a list of prizes recommended in various classes. 

 Besides the usual classes of products displayed in such 

 exhibitions in the West Indies, we notice the following 

 exceptional ones: sharks' skins prepared for shipment; 

 trolling or towing baits —spoons or spinners — of local make; 

 corned, salted, or smoked fish in lots of about •") B). 



From the Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, dated 

 September 15, 1916, we learn that the foot-and-mouth 

 disease discovered in October 1911 his been completely 

 eradicated in the United States. For more than a year and 

 a half constant warfare has been waged against this highly 

 infectious malady, which at times threitened to break beyond 

 control, and ravage the stock-raising and dairy industries of 

 the United States, as it has those of other parts of the world. 

 The work of eradication was carried cut by cooperation 

 between the United States Department of Agriculture and 

 the authorities of the affected States. 



In some of the West Indian Islands anthrax m animals 

 has caused, or is causing, anxiety. Farmer's Bulletin, 7S4, 

 United States Department of .Agriculture, contains a des- 

 cription of the history, symptoms, and treatment of this 

 disease. As to preventive measures, the following advice is 

 given: 'to eradicate anthrax from infected districts preventive 

 inoculation will play a very important part, but, in addition, 

 infected areas should be thoroughly drained, and kept under 

 cultivation for .some time before attempting to pasture stock 

 upon them. The complete destruction of all anthrax circases 

 is also very important. This is best accomplished by burning, 

 but deep burial may be practised instead. All dischirges from 

 the body openings should also be burned, or buried deeply." 



In an experiment of relative feeding value of certain 

 common sources of high protein-carrying feeds from both 

 animal and vegetable sources, it has been observed, according 

 to the New Jersey Stations Report of 191.5, that the poultry 

 receiving protein from an animal source, meat scrap, produced 

 in' the two years of the experiment a total of 8, .50 1 eggs, 

 as compared with 1,710 produced by those receiving soy 

 bean meal, 4,003 by those receiving gluten feed, 2,847 by' 

 those receiving linseed meal, and 2,995 by those receiving 

 cotton-seed meal. From the standpoints of egg production, 

 general health of the fowls, and economy, the protein 

 from the animal source was the most eflicient. The tiocks 

 receiving cotton seed meal and linseed meil apparently broke 

 down during the second year. {Experiment Station Record, 

 Vol. XXXVI, No 9.) 



